Sample Phone Script Requesting a Peace Pledge Signature

Obtaining a peace pledge signature from a political candidate or current office holder is a process that usually involves a number of steps and takes time. You might begin by sending the candidate/office holder an email message requesting their signature. We provide a sample email message here.

You can follow-up on this email message by telephoning the candidate or office holder. You will usually reach a staff person at their office. Talk with that person about the pledge campaign, using the following script, which you can modify as you wish. You will of course modify what you say, depending on how the person you’re speaking with responds.

Hello, I’m [say your name] and I am calling you about a peace pledge campaign.

I belong to (or: “I’m working with …”) [name of your group] here in [your city], and we have already sent you an email message about this campaign. We wonder whether you received that email message.

Pause for response. If response is positive — i.e. the person you’re on the phone with is familiar with the email message — then ask whether the person you’re talking with has visited the pledge website. If the response is negative, then suggest that we will send the message again, and this time directly to the email address of the person you’re talking with, or to a different person whose email address they give you.

In this campaign we’re asking all current political candidates and office holders [or “legislators”] here in [name of state] to sign a peace pledge committing them to advocate for the cause of peace.

Continue along the following lines, depending on receptiveness and interest of the person you’re talking with:

We are just getting this campaign underway, but already we have received the pledge signatures of [names of prominent signers of the pledge whom the person you’re speaking with will recognize (for example in Northern California: California Senator Nancy Skinner, Assembly member Rob Bonta and the mayors of Oakland, Berkeley, and Albany).] Some other local officials here in [location] have signed too.

Our aim now is to build this campaign for peace by having many more [name of city or state] legislators sign the pledge.

We’ll be happy to visit you in person to discuss this peace project with you.

(Time to wrap up your call)

Thanks for your interest in advancing this peace project. You can reach me by email or by phone. Bye for now.

Additional talking points, if the person seems receptive: Please let the members of your club know that their participation in this peace pledge campaign is a way to make their voices effectively heard during this election year.

We aim with this peace pledge to build a movement for peace, here in [name of state] and across the nation. When we have gathered a thousand signatures, say, we can then think of joint actions that the signers could all take. Such as organizing teach-ins and town-halls across the nation to discuss issues of war and peace. Here in [name of your state], legislators might advocate for the funding of a Peace Institute that would be a center for research and education about war and peace issues, including research into the conversion of a war economy to a peace economy in our state and nationwide.